If I owned this, which I don't, I'd make you all drink Pepsi. Please don't sue, I love Pepsi.
Defending The Shores of Amakusa
"You don't really have to do this with me, Jeannie." Logan looks at his wife nervously as the cross the small inlet riding in an old, wooden fisherman's boat. They've been married about a month and after years of waiting for her; he's not ready to loose her, not again, not ever. The fog hangs low in the early morning sky, and even though the sun has just started rising, leaving the sky to look as though it was fire and smoke slowly leaking from a dragons sleeping mouth, it was still barely four. The boat rocks slightly as yet another very large eel slides under their craft and waves lap lazily against the side.
She glides her left hand in the water, feeling the scales of the coy surfacing and diving, her other hand is sleepily under her chin as she absent mindedly watches the water, using her telekinesis to propel the boat. "Logan, if this is something important to you, I want to be there. If you're worried about my safety, just remember that I'm perfectly capable of handling myself." She turns her head to the side and smiles at him half asleep. "You taught me well."
He loves it when she looks at him like that, when she's still partially dead to the world, her hair fallen in deep spirals down her face, resting on her well- toned shoulders, her skin slightly aglow. It's the way she looks after he's touched every inch of that incredible body, just thinking about her in that way drives him nuts, he wants to hold her so badly right now, but the very last thing they need is for Amakusa to be alerted to their presence. "It was kind of necessary." He blushes slightly and looks away. She blushes too as his thoughts blaze along their psychic bond, and probably along to other people that they hold bonds with. Leaving a few people a world away to wake up in a cold, nauseated sweat, particularly the man that still secretly loves her.
"Oh? Why is that?" She teases him, just to hear him say it, just to have him squirm. It's a game lovers sometimes play, he has his moments too, and he enjoys watching her wiggle in her seat uncomfortably, particularly in front of Scott, and she does it, just to see the big, bad Wolverine sweat.
"Jeannie, this ain't funny." He stammers as he looks ahead to the approaching rocky shore. The light that his friend promised would burn if docking were permissible was on. "Besides, we're too close to shore, we need to maintain silence, some of these people hear as well as I do."
"So, think it." She telepathically purrs. "Why are you as agitated?"
"Once we get on shore, our powers will be negated, something used to keep peace here." He looks around for any signs of hostility. "Something like when towns in the old west used to take the guns from people passing through. So once we get within five hundred feet of that rock right there, our hand to hand is all we've got to keep us alive."
"And you can't extend your claws without bleeding to death." She finishes his thought.
"That and if these men think like most men do, they'd do things to you that only I have the right to try." He smiles an impish smile at her, followed by a serious look on his brow. "Do you see why I wanted you to stay home on this one?"
"And let Jubilee come and have all the fun?" She mentally laughs. "No chance. When will we lo…"
"Right there." Logan whispers. Logan paddles the small boat the rest of the way as the two sit in silence. As the craft gets within a few yards of shore, a figure begins to appear in the fog. The crystal on his sphere catching the glint of the arriving sun as the figure stands stoic on the dock.
"Logan!" The figure calls out in Japanese. "How very good it is you have come! I began to grow worried."
"Amakusa?" He asks as he steps out of the boat to bind it. "Will you hold it down? We don't want to alert everyone we've arrived. I didn't even want you to know"
"We?" Amakusa questions as he pushes a piece of his hair away from his face with a puff of air in an exaggerated fashion. "You brought somebody along? I thought you knew we needed you alone?"
"She wouldn't stay away, and if you don't believe me, you try to talk her out of it." Logan argues as he steadies the boat so Jean can get out.
"She? Well, my, my, my! I approve. I find her very aesthetic. Who is she?" Amakusa questions as he extends his hand in a hello.
"Hello... er?" Jean tries to introduce herself, but the ambiguity of the person stumps her without her telepathy.
"Mr. Tokisada" Logan tells her as he watches the man warily. He's not always been one of the good guys and he's pretty sure this man never was. "This is my wife."
"Nice to met you." She says in near perfect Japanese. Logan has taught her well over the two years and the rest, she picked up telepathically at the airport upon arrival in the main island.
"Call me Amakusa." He says with a flourish. "Would you like to meet my wife?"
"Certainly, Amakusa. Is she here?" Jean asks as she looks around, only to be rewarded with a very dirty skull in her face. "Logan?"
"Amakusa, why don't you fill me in on why I'm here, other than you think you're going to get killed… again." Logan says before Amakusa says something like, "We're trying to have children". "And that I owe you for saving my butt last century in O-Yano- Jima."
"My evil self has resurfaced in Naga-ura-jima." He says turning to the short man.
"And you couldn't handle this?" Logan asks agitated that he could be at home sleeping with his wife instead of a rapidly heating Mae-Jima morning.
"As has Zankuro Minazuki. His Peerless blade has been stolen." Amakusa tells him solemnly. "That and he found that your wife is the true Phoenix and not Kazuki. My evil self was set to kill her, but as you have allowed her here, and not left her home, where she had defense, my other self is set to hunt her to the death." He pauses. "I hope you trained her well as I, myself may be engaged to dispatch her. Now, lets go have breakfast."
"Logan, how do you know this man?" Jean demands to know as men she's never heard of have now threatened her life, but Amakusa is right. Here, Logan and she have no defense.
"I know him from when I wasn't one of the good guys, Jeannie. You don't want to know more." Logan tells her before turning to Amakusa. "You mentioned through your contact that some of your people had devices that could negate the power fields for a time being. How long?"
"One hour and one hour alone, use outside of that, and you will be a vegetable for life. You must only use it should the mission's success be in danger." He tells him. "Can we not switch to another dialect? My companions are not keen for outsiders to know our workings, particularly not ones that may end up our targets."
"Let me tell you one thing." Logan stares the good Amakusa down. "She is my wife, no one kills her. No One!" He pulls Amakusa to the side, as Jean looks confused. "If it becomes necessary, I do it. Understand?"
"I understand. She still knows nothing of the danger she has placed herself in?"
"I'd rather her with me, Bub, than her fighting these people alone, no matter for whose good it is." Logan growls.
"He said something about breakfast?" Jean asks as their flight served no meal.
"Sure thing, pretty one." Amakusa grins at her evilly. "The custom is for women to make rice balls, I believe we've some rice from last night, get to it so that we can eat before noon."
"Excuse me?"
"We all will go." Logan steps in before a fight breaks out. "I'll show you how to do it, Jean, just stay ten feet behind us and keep your head down, you don't want to be marked as an outcast without your powers."
"O.K. Logan, just make sure your friend doesn't slip, because I will step on him." She threatens.
"Do not threaten me, woman. I've just saved your life." Amakusa spits back. "You owe me."
